Bakers’ initiative to empower the unemployed

By The Standard | Mar. 20, 2018 | 2 Min read

With Zimbabwe’s economic recovery increasing becoming elusive, more people are moving into the informal sector as companies continue to operate at low capacity, unable to employ more staff at a time when the unemployment rate is at over 85 percent.

With Zimbabwe’s economic recovery increasingly becoming elusive, more people are moving into the informal sector as companies continue to operate at low capacity, unable to employ more staff at a time when the unemployment rate is at over 85 percent.

By Felix Machiwenyika

In response to this, Zimbabweans in the informal sector have come up with various initiatives, which include home-based projects.

Cake artist Sylvia Kaferapanjila is one of those who have gone out of their way to create a platform for fellow cake artists and bakers to make the best out of the demand for home made confectionary.

What started in 2016 as a Whatsapp group, called Passion Bakers, culminated into what is now a large project aimed at empowering those that are doing home based baking projects.

To date Passion Bakers has held various initiatives to equip its members and affiliates with skills and last week hundreds converged in Highlands, Harare, for a work-related learning workshop aimed at improving products and services in the cake industry.

Skilled personnel in the cake industry from Botswana and different parts of Zimbabwe such as Bulawayo, Gweru and Mutare came to share their skills with fellow counterparts.

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‘We had guests from all over Zimbabwe to give us their knowledge, and share ideas so that the cake industry can advance to the next level’ she said.

The event which was mainly graced by women in the cake business shared business ideas that included marketing strategies, business communication, sales, advertising and customer care.

‘ Every business needs formal planning and organization to be a success hence these ladies have converged to give each other tips to success in a business’ she said.

Passion bakers partnered with steward bank and Stracia were they were given opportunities to open there business and personal accounts.

The bakers were given different baking challenges and categories were they had to put their baking skills to test and prices were won.

Sylvia promised more empowering workshops in the near future.